Photographer: Etienne Ansotte

Press conference by Viviane Reding, Vice-President of the EC, on the modernisation of travel rules for consumers and businesses

Viviane Reding, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, gave a press conference on the modernisation of travel rules for consumers and businesses.As the summer season kicked off, the EC was taking action to improve protection for holiday makers by modernising EU rules on package holidays. The 1990 EU Directive on package travel had served as the bedrock for the protection offered to EU holidaymakers. It guaranteed comprehensive protection to consumers booking pre-arranged package holidays which involved combinations of, for example, flights, hotels, or car rentals.The reform responded to a fundamental transformation of the travel market: Citizens were increasingly taking a more active role in tailoring their holidays to their specific requirements, notably by using the internet to combine travel arrangements rather than choosing from ready-made packages out of a brochure. The update of the 1990 rules was essentially about bringing the Package Travel Directive into the digital age. It meant that an additional 120 million consumers who buy these customised travel arrangements would also be protected by the directive.